The weekend with social things

 Hi,

What a weekend! And Friday was stunning and today (Monday) is stunning. And it was a mixed bag in the actual weekend for weather. Saturday slowly ramped up the wind factor through the day until it was pretty strong through the night.

But, let's see what else we did, eh?

Thursday morning Lewis Road iced latte at work

Wedding anniversary dinner at Hillside 

Thursday saw me and Mike work a bit late at work and then walk up to Hillside for our 24th wedding anniversary. Oohh - a biggie next year then. Lucky i have my wee sister to remind me every year. Fortunately Mike actually remembered and booked this for this year. 

Delicious food. Wonderful company. I am very lucky indeed. Course highlight? Might have been the dessert. Aquafaba meringue. That was delicious.

Here's to 24 years married and 31 years together

First course

Second course?

Tiny asparagus above? And maybe leeks? Oh - I can't remember it all at this distance. And I think I need more iced latte.

Forget the courses we had now. All lovely

Maybe cabbage?

More deliciousness

Aquafaba meringue - delicious

We had such a lovely time. Mike got the wine match and enjoyed that too. And then we walked home. It was a lovely evening.

When I got home, Mike had a present for us. It is fantastic. The night sky in Melbourne on the day we got married. OMG. My heart!

Close up of the present from Mike

Mike got us an anniversary gift that is perfect

Moxley draped over the floor

I see the carpet bunny you made!

Iced latte date with Alastair

Friday saw me head to town for an iced latte catch up with Alastair. We had a good chat about his jury duty this week. And the process he found while doing his civic duty.

Left Alastair there and drove to Johnsonville to meet Maureen for an iced latte. But only for me this time, Maureen is not a fan of cold coffee. She bumped into people that knew her parents. So they had a good chat.

And a second one with Maureen

The "feed me now" paw

Sated

Smudge exploring

Smudge being a cat model

Supreme pose

Friday dinner with the James'

And after work (for Mike) - it was social times with the James family. Lovely time and enjoyed a dinner outside with them.

View from their place as we left

Run Mike!

Finish straight

Up and off to Lower Hutt for gym for me, and park run for Mike. Mike was quite slow, and annoyed enough about it that he even edited my blog post to write about himself in the third person. He will have to work harder if he's going to do okay in the Round the Bays early next year. 

And then back home to forage for a Christmas tree. We wandered around Te Ahumairangi hill for ages. Mike got two wee trees so we cable tied them together and they look mighty fine.

Foraged a tree

In loc

Moxley checks her new water source

Sunday saw us host some of the Sampson clan for a lovely cup of tea while they are down to se Lesley's new workplace today! We compared Spotify Wrapped notes. Hahahah. They are checking the property market out too.

Then an evening trip to Lighthouse Petone with Sally and Andrew to see "Next Goal Wins". Set in American Samoa around their national football team and their chase for at least one goal in international competition.

Photo bomb!

Just me and the "Next goals wins" bus

That's enough photos now, Mike!

Back home and off to bed for me to read. Up to a stunning day today. Mike is in town for work.

Monday morning warmth

Busy at work. But WFH. :-)  

Hope your week is marvellous!

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with dinner with Lesley and Chelsea

 Hi,

Must have reached peak cat content - because there were no new pics today. Hahahah. But it is back to iced latte goodness in the blog post today.

No hands iced latte selfie - with Hope

After work, Mike and I wandered up to see Lesley. She is visiting for her work. Not many days left for her in that job before she starts in mid Jan here in Wellington. Come on down, whanau!!!

We spied on Chelsea at her workplace. Ok. I did. She is in her element there, I can tell. We went to Abrakebabra for tea. It was nice - fresh. But the pigeons flying in and out were really off-putting.

Stalking Chelsea in the shop

Bussed home after some Lewis Road iced coffee purchases. And into bed pretty fast. Up for a bus into town because I left my bike at work.

Took pics of my plants - they are fair coming on.

Strawberries starting to get colour

Tomatoes slowly growing

Zucchini really taking off now

Andrew at French Kiss cart on his way to work

At gym with Quentin for bench. 42.5 kg 4 sets x 3 reps and then 1 set of 1 terrible rep. I want to try one rep at 45kg in a week or so. Come on!

Then found Andrew on his way to work as I walked back to work. And enjoyed an iced latte with him in the sun. T shirt weather! Woot!

Happy birthday to Maureen today.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with whanau dinner

 Hi,

I have no iced latte in the house. It is tragic. No pics of me consuming the elixir of life. But there is cat content.

Cats loving the sun

But it all came to a head

This one persevered

After work, we nipped down the hill to collect Andrew from town and then headed to 40. And we got there pretty fast - the traffic was good.

Helen was there - and Aidan and Janne. Anthony came too. So it was quite a big crowd for dinner with the Orkney visitors.

They had been to Zealandia, the cable car and Te Papa. So they were very happy with their flying visit to Wellington.

Family get together

There they all are

They are off this morning to visit Aidan at the dairy farm. And then headed north. I really want to visit them again in Orkney now.

Dropped Helen in Tawa and Anthony at his flat in town and then into bed for us. Up to ride into work. But before I left, I spotted Moxley hunting a kereru on the deck. She was frozen completely for well over 2 mins. Until the kereru flew off. I think she was excited - then realised how big this bird was. Hahah.

Moxley ambitiously hunts a kereru this morning

And I PBed in deads - 95kg

Gorgeous ride in. And the weather is stunning. No wind. I bumped into Maureen at the bike shed and gave her a birthday eve hug! I walked to the gym in just a t-shirt.

Dinner with Lesley tonight. She is down to check our her new workplace before the year ends. Yay! We will see her soon.

Right. Time to get stuck in.

Have a brilliant day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with Orkney folks in Wellington

 Hi,

I took no pics of the Orkney whānau. Gah! Anyway - Monday Mike and I worked from home. And at the end of the day, we drove into RNZ house and collected Andrew (who had waited at Maccas - then realised he was not in the right spot and ran up Boulcott!!). Out to Sally and Andrew's place to meet Kay, Dave, Alastair and Kirsty.

Smudge posing for the mandated cat content

They seem to be a little discombobulated by the change to staying with Sally and Andrew (rather than us). But Sally's house is so much bigger and easier to stay at. Hopefully that is good with everyone.

The van has made it to Lower Hutt! En route to Auckland

Sally put on an awesome tea for us all. Mmmmm. Then a nice cup of tea afterwards. Mike and I left at 2030 or so and got back home to get the motorcycle onto the trailer for its service today. Mike was amazing. No issues getting it on there and tying it down.

Mike gets the motorcycle on the trailer

Had a restless sleep. But up for gym. There are protests this morning across the motu so we are both working from home. Well, that is not the reason. Mike has to take the bike in - negotiating busy peak hour traffic. And we have to leave on the dot of 5.30 from here to get to the whānau dinner.

Home Lewis Road iced latte content

Right. Things seem to be unravelling at work. We darn a bit, and another thread pokes out somewhere else. But in the tapestry that is the IT systems at work, the two unravelling places are not connected. Oddly enough. So it is just coincidence. And it looks like one of them has been darned like a boss. So - back on track with that part.

Metaphor is also crumbling under the weight of my rambling words. Time to cut it short.

Have a brilliant Tuesday.

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

Happy birthday to Tyler. 20 today! Wow. I remember her birth pretty well. Where have those 20 years gone? She is an amazing young woman. I hope her day is awesome.

Right. I worked Friday. It was a big day at work. A launch of a new purpose for the company. A big deal.

Then I joined a bunch of people from outside of digital and we teamed up and did an Amazing Race. I have to say, I absolutely loved it. Debbie and Shoshana and I ran all around Wellington CBD. Well, I ran. They complained a lot. But I got rid of a lot of excess energy by running to the Lego shop and back while they bought tickets for the cable car. Good strategy there.

Amazing Race fun with Debbie and Shoshana

Clues gathered

With Chewbacca

I learned some stuff - did not know the metal sculpture on Midland Park was a Katherine Mansfield sculpture.

It was fun to get to know Debbie and Shoshana more. They are both very good at finding holes in the rules. Hahahah. Our best hole might have been Debbie getting a pic of the maurosaur at Te Papa on her phone and me taking a pic of her phone with Chewbacca in it. I thought I was pushing it by getting a pic of Solace in the Wind from the other side of the harbour - using my zoom! Hahahah.

Loved it! We came 4th out of 5 teams. But that's because we missed the 50 points on the last page for a pic with a police officer. Easy points. So we would have been second probably with that one. But such fun. The security guard at Parliament was not very keen on Debbie asking to take photos of them for one of the tasks. Hahah.

Back to work to get changed. Then off to St James for the party.

Adnan and I are ready for it!

The three together again

Oh hi Ken!

Most of the crew

The party was great fun. First up, prize giving in the theatre. The two hosts (Barbie and Ken, naturally) were great. Ken warmed up into the role nicely. Congrats to the winners of the big categories. Well deserved, to all of them. Then it was party time upstairs.

Great fun too. Band was slow to get warmed up, I reckon. But everyone was relaxed and cheerful. It was hard to recognise people. Celia went all out as a rocker Barbie. With a giant cassette tape. So good. I was Jane Goodall Barbie. AT least 2 people guessed. Although some bloke guessed I was Steve Irwin. Okay.

With Abbie as Safari Barbie

We Ubered home at 9.15pm or so. And I reunited my "chimp" from Erin with the baby "chimp". In quote marks because they are both gibbons. But no one noticed.

Reunited after the party

Apes in the kete

I try the rainbow iced coffee. Yeah, nah.

I tried the Boss Rainbow iced coffee - and it got to #2 in the recent Spinoff canned coffee poll. But it was far too sweet for me.

Mike gave me brekkie in bed Sunday

Sally and Andrew popped around to drop the car off after their Hauraki rail trail week. We saw lots of pics. Looked like fun.

I made lots of food.

I made lasagne with Celia's spinach

And haloumi and egg pie for Tuesday night dinner

Smudge pins me down

Moxley sleeps

Made date loaf too

Moxley pins me

And I've nailed the cat content. Hahah.

The Orkney whanau arrive at 5.30pm today after spent ages in the South Island and dinner with Iona and Col and everyone last night. Looking forward to seeing them. Dinner tomorrow at 40WLW.

Have a brilliant week.

Love,

Angela